Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Vladimir Putin begins key visit to China

Mr Putin, who landed with a 160-strong delegation of tycoons and bureaucrats, is making his first foreign trip since he announced his intention to return as Russia's president.

Next year will be a year of political transition for both Russia and China, and analysts said Mr Putin would be keen to build ties with China's next generation of leaders.

It is the first foreign trip for Mr Putin since he announced his intention to return as Russia's president next year and will allow him to cement his ties with China's next generation of leaders.

Zhang Jianrong, a professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science, a government think tank, said Mr Putin would have the opportunity to meet Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, the two men who are likely to take over as China's president and premier in 2012.

"This is a special visit," he said. "He should be able to have a good talk with China's next generation of leaders and begin to build a private relationship.

This is quite important for both countries."
The warming of political ties between Russia and China is underpinned by a significant increase in trade, especially in raw materials and natural resources. Last year there was a 41 per cent rise in trade to $55.45 billion (£35.5 billion), and the figure is expected to rise again to $70 billion this year and $200 billion by the end of the decade.
As Mr Putin touched down, officials were able to announce $7 billion worth of deals ready to be signed, although they did not specify what they were. One key deal, however, is a $1 trillion project to export natural gas from Siberia to north west China.
Talks have stalled on the price that Russia wishes to charge for the gas, and Russian officials have said no deal will be signed on the current trip, but analysts said they were hopeful of progress.
China is aiming to triple its consumption of natural gas, in a bid to cut its use of coal, and may eventually become as reliant on Russian gas as Europe.
"By the end of the decade, Russia could account for a third of China's natural gas supplies," said Lin Boqiang, a professor of Energy and Economics at Xiamen university.
"Of course, there are also downsides. Russia used to shut off its gas supply to Europe, for example."
Mr Putin's arrival was feted in the Chinese state media as a step towards building a "more multipolar" world. With Russia and China united, suggested Xinhua, global politics would be "more balanced".
The official propaganda arm of the Chinese government praised Russia for standing together with China to "thwart several attempts" by the West to meddle in other countries' "internal affairs".
Both Russia and China are deeply suspicious of the Arab Spring movement, and worry that the United States is feeding the protest movements to further its own interests.
In particular, Moscow and Beijing are nervous of losing influence in the Arab world and are determined to oppose efforts to use the United Nations to sanction regime-change.
However, Kevin Rudd, the Australian Foreign minister, attacked the Sino-Russian cooperation which saw both countries veto a UN resolution over Syria on October 4. "China and Russia now bear a particular responsibility for persuading Syria to end the violence," wrote Mr Rudd in an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald.Behind the scenes, however, there still remains open distrust between the two countries, born out of decades of rivalry.
Mr Putin has been pushing for the creation of a new union among central Asian nations, a "Eurasian Union" that would directly challenge China's influence in the region. Meanwhile, many in Moscow are concerned at China's efforts to replicate Russian technology, and last week the security agency leaked the news that a Chinese spy had been caught trying to steal details of a Russian missile system.

by Malcolm Moore taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8819930/Vladimir-Putin-begins-key-visit-to-China.html